Thursday, February 2, 2012

Letter to myself, 5 years ago.

I happened to glance over at my picture on my profile here on blogger today. Me, 5 years younger. Sparkling blue eyes. Skinny! In my early 20s and idealistic. Excited to be a part of something bigger than myself.

I found myself staring into those eyes, my eyes 5 years ago, wanting to somehow speak to her.

Dear me/you,

"You have no idea what's ahead. There is pain. There is so much loss. There is head spinning transition. And so. much. pain.

And there are opportunities you never dreamed of. Adventures on multiple continents. Some of the dearest friendships. Second chances. Redemption stories.

You will get back on stage. You will. And you'll be scared to death. And you'll love it.

And someone will tell you that you should never weigh yourself again. You are a stress eater. And you hate exercise. This is bad advice. You will be curvier and softer in 5 years. Accept that as soon as possible.

And you'll cut off all your hair. Woah. Yup, even though you hated it when anyone else did it. And you will love it. Trust me.

You will be loved. Don't forget that. Even when you don't feel it. It will always be there. Just don't forget to love others and keep seeking God. There will be many valleys and it's a climb up to the mountain, but the view is always worth it.

There's more, but I can't remember it. Yup, your memory isn't going to get any better in 5 years. Sorry!

Dance, sing, create, and cherish people, because you never know how long they will be with you.

Oh - one last thing, you'll go by Abigail so much that in 5 years, it will feel strange when people call you "Abby." And it actually won't feel as pretentious as you fear."

Hi there! I am off topic but I just noticed a recipe online for sugar cream pie and you posted something to it last year about having a better microwaveable recipe. Would you be willing to share it with me? (my daughter and her family are missionaries in Kenya by the way, hope you are well as you have not posted recently it appears. . . )

No worries! I unfortunately just packed up all of my cookbooks and recipes two nights ago...do you need the recipe soon? I can definitely get it for you, it just may be a week or two. I wish I knew it by heart - I used to! Do I know your daughter? I'm doing well, I've just been blogging over on a new blog - unwedfostermother.blogspot.com.

Love you Abigail! Thanks for sharing your heart. It's so wonderful to know that God doesn't give us a preview when He knows we'd never be able to deal with life ahead of when it happens. Instead He just gently leads us one step at a time to teach us depths of His love we could've never imagined. I love reading how He's done that in your life here!